An Ad With a Wheelchair Shakes Up the Texas Governor’s Race

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Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis at a debate in Dallas. An ad for Ms. Davis has become one of the most debated spots this year.CreditCreditPool photo by Andy Jacobsohn

By David Montgomery

Oct. 13, 2014

AUSTIN — A 30-second TV spot airs only in selected markets in Texas, but just four days after its release, the “wheelchair ad” from the campaign of State Senator Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor, has provoked a nationwide debate over its tone and the boundaries of political attack ads.

But as all negative advertising does, the spot puts a second fundamental issue in play: Will it help Ms. Davis’s campaign or hurt it?

The ad, which Ms. Davis defended in a news conference on Monday, constitutes the latest push in her campaign against the Republican front-runner, Greg Abbott, the state attorney general, who has used a wheelchair since becoming partly paralyzed in 1984 when he was struck by a falling tree while jogging. Mr. Abbott, who entered the race last year on the anniversary of the accident, has cited his successful struggle to adapt to the disability as a sign of strength and determination.

The Davis ad opens with a picture of a wheelchair, mentions the accident and says: “He sued and got millions.” It then accuses Mr. Abbott, the state’s chief legal officer, of hypocrisy, saying he has spent “his career working against other victims” who wanted to pursue lawsuits.

Since it hit the air, the ad has become perhaps the most talked-about spot in the 2014 election cycle, creating a fierce pushback from those who feel it was woefully ill-advised and ventured into shameless bad taste.

“Yikes, I cringed watching that,” Mika Brzezinski said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” saying she faulted “everything from the production of it, to the looming voice, to the issues.”

Ms. Brzezinski added, “She should be appealing to women, and she should be inspiring them and having a positive message.”

But Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said that the initial outpouring of negative reaction may be giving way to a more receptive response as the ad continues to air. “I think opinion has shifted over the past couple of days,” he said. “It is a galvanizing ad, and it stops and commands attention.”

The Abbott campaign has blasted the ad as “disgusting,” but there is no doubt that it has received attention, grabbing more than 400,000 views on YouTube as of late Monday. And Ms. Davis is obviously hoping that the attention will translate into votes that can help propel her past Mr. Abbott by the Nov. 4 election.

Even Davis supporters acknowledge that the candidate needs something in the form of a Hail Mary pass to have any chance of winning in a place where Democrats have not won a statewide election in two decades. Mr. Abbott, often characterized as the Republican heir apparent to Gov. Rick Perry, has led in the polls from the outset of the race and now has five times as much money in the bank as Ms. Davis — $30 million to $5.7 million.

Nevertheless, Democrats believe the race was beginning to tighten even before the release of Ms. Davis’ ad on Friday, pointing to a recent Texas Lyceum Poll that showed her nine points behind after a succession of earlier polls showing her trailing by double digits. The Texas Lyceum poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four points.

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An ad for Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate, criticized Greg Abbott, the Republican nominee who uses a wheelchair, for his stance on lawsuits.

Ms. Davis, who generated nationwide attention last year through a Senate filibuster against a Republican bill to restrict access to abortions, adamantly defended the ad at a news conference Monday in her hometown, Fort Worth. The news conference, held specifically to elaborate on the ad, included in-person testimonials from a rape victim and two people with physical disabilities, including one who uses a wheelchair.

“This ad is about one thing and one thing only. It’s about Greg Abbott’s hypocrisy,” Ms. Davis said. “Greg Abbott rightly sought justice for himself when he sued a tree company and a homeowner, and he received a multimillion-dollar settlement. And ever since, in his role as a public servant, Greg Abbott has shown time and time again that he has worked to deny that same justice to others.”

Developed by the campaign’s media consultant, Shorr Johnson Magnus of Philadelphia, the ad opens with a picture of a wheelchair with a 2002 Associated Press report superimposed over it, saying that Mr. Abbott could receive as much as $10.7 million from his legal settlement. It restates the Davis campaign’s assertions that Mr. Abbott fought to block a woman with an amputated leg from suing the state; sided with a hospital that failed to stop a dangerous surgeon; and, while serving as a Texas Supreme Court justice, ruled against a rape victim who sued a vacuum cleaner company for failing to do a background check on an employee she accused of assaulting her.

Zac Petkanas, Ms. Davis’s chief spokesman, said she had seen the ad before it aired, but he declined to describe her response. The reaction from voters, Mr. Petkanas said, has been “overwhelming.”

Texas Republicans have vilified the ad as underhanded and offensive, with the state’s party chairman, Steve Munisteri, demanding that Ms. Davis apologize to disabled people and accusing her of attempting to use Mr. Abbott’s disability for “political gain.”

“The Wendy Davis ad is easily the most offensive and despicable ad I have seen in my 42 years of politics,” Mr. Munisteri said.

Mr. Abbott’s partial paralysis and use of a wheelchair have been part of his political persona since the start of his career. When he entered the governor’s race at a rally in San Antonio on July 14, 2013, he told of the “steamy summer day” when he went out for a jog and was struck by a falling oak tree that crushed his spinal cord. He told supporters how physicians had inserted two steel rods along his vertebrae, and he vowed to “use my steel spine to fight for you and for every Texas family.”

Ads airing in his campaign show Mr. Abbott propelling his wheelchair up a multitiered parking garage to illustrate how he had rebuilt his strength after the injury and — to demonstrate his desire to reduce traffic problems in the state — moving alongside bumper-to-bumper traffic to show that even a man in a wheelchair can outpace gridlock in Texas cities.

By referring to his disability in his political campaign, some analysts say, Mr. Abbott effectively opened the door for Ms. Davis’s depiction of the wheelchair in her ad. “Greg Abbott has made the wheelchair a representation of his strength and his determination,” said Professor Jillson of S.M.U.

Less clear is whether the ad’s imagery effectively conveys the message Ms. Davis’s campaign had in mind, and whether so polarizing an ad is likely to help a long-shot campaign.

Allan Saxe, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, said the Davis campaign “wanted some drama, and they got it.” But he predicted that the ad would have little impact at this stage of the campaign.

“I don’t think there is anything that’s going to move it,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: An Ad With a Wheelchair Shakes Up the Texas Governor’s Race. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe